Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Episode 100: YASDs

This is episode 100 of Roguelike Radio! Yes, 100! Woohoo!! :D For this fabulous milestone we cover something very close to the heart to roguelike players - YASDs (Yet Another Stupid Deaths), with Darren Grey and Andrew Doull.You can download the mp3 of the podcast, play it in the embedded player below, or you can follow us on iTunes.

Many thanks to our anonymous editor for putting this particularly tricky episode together! He tried getting a cool outtro recording at IRDC but the recording ended up being unsuitable due to the audio levels.

I got back into Roguelikes about 6 years ago, 2009, having not played anything since pre-Nethack days. The hobby had changed only in that there were more games, no real cross genre RL's I could name (roguelites?). Even the question of "to tile or not to tile" was very much ongoing.

Game #1 - Testing potions on level 10 - next to lava - predictably it's a confusion potion and I die screaming in lava. I'm an idiot/newb, lesson learnt, moving on...Game #2 - My save game gets corrupted around floor 12 (as far as I'd ever got)... but I'd been playing Game #1 on 2 computers so I inadvertently had a backup. I figured having corrupted this save Brogue owed me another attempt at it...Game #3 - I do slightly better on my second attempt at this save, on floor 12 with 2 Dar Blademasters as minions... nothing can stand in my way... apart from the confusion trap my minions have just set off... next to some lava... and between the three of us keep setting it off until I'm dead. That'll teach me :P

WTF is up with the Incursion "bashing"? Seriously, I would like to hear all of your sorry, embarassing excuses for not liking it.

It _is_ the best traditional-/classical roguelike there is.(Granted that is supposed to be a subjective matter, but it is a fact. :p)

At least episode 65 had this as well. I can only guess it is because it is too much of a challenge for you and you die too quickly in it (hence only down to lack of skill and some familiarity).

I quote you here, Darren, "You spent half the bloody game creating your character." Sounds an awful lot like evidence for my assumption being true.Especially when taking into account that you love(d) ADOM, which has at least an equally involved character generation / amount of focus on that.

Less time bashing Incursion spent rather than playing it might one day let you see this.

Ep 65 was at least 2 years ago! I feel more sorry for the Nethack fans that have to put up with me hating on it on a far more regular basis.

I'm not an Incursion fan. The startup takes too long, and I don't like the D20 system that's ubiquitous through the mechanics. I admit I should play more of it instead of moaning though! I'm curious to hear what you like so much about it? What makes it special amongst the world of roguelikes?

In ADOM I turn off the starting questions and make character creation take a few short button presses. Plus, well, clearly I know the game inside out so starting is easy for me. And to my biased human brain is is absolutely clearly the best roguelike there is!! :p

Thanks for you taking my rant with a reply of such sportsmanship. It actually surprisingly made me smile. :-)

I take it you have read Julian's Tech-/WhitePaper for the game at least once? If you have not I strongly suggest you do:http://www.incursion-roguelike.net/TechPaper%20%28Web%20Version%29.htm

It says a lot of what is to be said about the game / goes into quite great detail on what is to love (or dislike YMMObviouslyV) about it.

What I like:

The D20 system or rather the rules and options for character development and the derived depth are attractive to me. Combat also benefits from this with more strategic options.The chargen with the random set of attributes and perks/special item combinations to choose from.

The "game breaking" race/class combo which has been left in unnerfed. <3

Unique selling points Julian shot for are also detailed in the paper:"There are four central elements that make Incursion unique within its genre: extensibility, the d20 ruleset, an immersive world and long-term tactics."

"The many character creation options and tactical choices available in the tabletop game remain mostly intact in Incursion. Players can choose feats, clerical domains and spells for their characters that offer a much greater degree of customization than most other roguelikes do by simply allowing players to roll their character’s attributes and choose a race/class combination. The combat system includes much of the flexibility of the d20 system, with rules for attacks of opportunity, flanking, flat-footedness, grappling, tripping, disarming and many other nuances."

Coincidentally it also talks about YASDs:"One of the clichés of roguelike games is the YASD (Yet Another Silly Death), where players lose their character to a single silly mistake or random event that is essentially arbitrary in nature, and must start the game from the beginning again. Incursion intends to remove (or at least minimize) this trend – ideally, the true death of a player character in Incursion should be the result not of a single event but of a longer stream of tactically imprudent decisions on the player’s part [...]"

I believe in its great coding design / craftsmanship and feel that that effort showed fruits awesomely. :>

Yeah, the closest to a YASD I've gotten in FTL was a stalemate - Upgraded medbay, three crew hiding in it... And no air. All three suffocating to death as the medbay healed them from their suffocation at a faster rate than they were losing health from asphyxiation. And the corridoor was long enough that they didn't quite have enough time to get to the Life Support room to even start repairing it.